"More than Meets the Eye"

Are you also fascinated by what happens when you look into someone’s eyes? You can drown in them. Or they can be eyes that look away. They can be intoxicating, or they seem to look straight through you. Why do we make or avoid eye contact? And does what we see in a person’s left eye differ from what we see in their right eye? Can we see emotion in the right eye which is connected to the emotional right hemisphere of the brain? And do we see a visible connection of rational left hemisphere in the left eye?

We invite you to look at the portraits in this book and let us know what you see.

Naked Eye Project - More than meets the eye!

Why Naked and B/W?

Why did we decide to call this project the Naked Eye Project? Because the people who sat for the portraits allowed themselves to be photographed without artifice. They allowed themselves to be seen as they are, without makeup. They were exposed and vulnerable. Everyone was photographed from the same angle with the same lighting. And the photographs were shot in black and white to remove the distraction of colour. All that remains are the eyes that look out at you.

The naked eye.

How to look at the portraits ?

The photographs you are about to see show people looking at the camera as neutrally as possible. You will see two portraits of the same person. At first glance they look identical. But there is a significant difference: one portrait has two left eyes and the other has two right eyes. This was not achieved by slicing the portraits in two and then pasting two right halves and two left halves together, which results in an entirely different face. In one photograph the left eye has been replaced with the right eye, and in the other the right eye has been replaced with the left eye. This was a time-consuming and painstaking process that involved replacing the entire eye, including the eyelids and the eyelashes.

So what are we looking for when we look at the pictures? To answer that question, we need to return to the essence of our quest. The understanding that both eyes are connected to the sides of the left us with three questions. Can we see the creative and emotional right characteristics of the brain in the right eye, and the rational and analytical left characteristics of the brain in the left eye? And when we make eye contact with someone, which eye are we looking at? Which way of perceiving the world do we unconsciously seek to connect with?